Alphonse and Gaston

This Sunday strip follows two French characters through a comic dispute over who should proceed first through a narrow rowboat. The narrative unfolds across six panels, using sequential art to develop the gag: mutual politeness escalates into chaos as the men bow, gesture, and eventually tumble into the water. The strip employs speech balloons, expressive linework, and panel-by-panel progression—visual conventions that became foundational to comics. Recurring character strips like this, appearing in newspapers nationwide, established the formula and visual language that would define the medium as it evolved from print to the comic books of the 1930s and beyond.